Mattie Donnelly feels Tyrone should be proud after coming away from Navan with their championship hopes still intact.

Cathal McShane landed a stunning equaliser in the sixth minute of injury time before the Red Hands saw off Meath after extra time in a hard-fought first-round Qualifier at Pairc Tailteann ten days ago.

"It wouldn't have been an injustice if we had scored four goals in the first half and you'd have been in a completely different position," their captain told The Irish Daily Star. "But the way it materialised, we weren't and the game was a lot tighter in the second half and we were very nearly nipped.

"We have to be extremely proud though of the way that the younger players in particular handled the pressure. It was a hostile environment and Cathal showed great bottle to kick that late equaliser to force extra time. You wouldn't get many more hostile environments than that

"It was just a matter of getting over the line. In fairness, they have some very good players and we found that out but we knew that there was going to be a kick in them after they had the disappointment of losing to Longford in Leinster."

Tyrone face another tricky away test against Carlow this weekend.

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